Psychoeducation and counselling

Psychoeducation encompass a broad range of activities that combine education and other activities such as counseling and supportive interventions. Psychoeducational interventions may be delivered individually or in groups and may be tailored or standardized. This type of intervention generally includes providing patients with information about treatments, symptoms, resources, and services; training to provide care and respond to disease-related problems; and problem-solving strategies for coping with cancer. Interventions may include the use of booklets, videos, audiotapes, and computers, and formats may be interactive among healthcare professionals and patients and caregivers, self-directed via the use of CDs and other materials, or delivered online or telephonically. Studies using psychoeducational interventions tend to vary substantially in specific content, format, frequency, and timing of the interventions. For this reason, limited ability exists to currently examine the relative effectiveness of different formats and delivery methods. Highly specific content approaches such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral approaches are identified in these resources as separate interventions, rather than incorporated into overall psychoeducation.